Man City 3 West Brom 0: City stroll to victory over Baggies to keep pressure on Chelsea

The hapless official sent off the wrong West Brom player – Gareth McAuley rather than Craig Dawson – in only the second minute.

And City, who had lost four of their previous five matches, cashed in against the ten-man Baggies to cut Chelsea’s lead at the top to three points.

Wilfried Bony scored his first goal for City since his £25million move from Swansea and was joined on the scoresheet by Fernando and David Silva.

Only the heroics of West Brom keeper Boaz Myhill prevented a major rout.

So after recent setbacks it was a happy 100th match in charge of City for Manuel Pellegrini.

The Chilean sent out his players with a “play-like-champions” message.

He said: “There is still nearly one quarter of the Barclays Premier League programme to play so it is just nonsense to suggest that there is nothing to play for. We remain the champions of England and we must show that in the last nine games and see what happens.”